ANIMAL KINGDOM

Year: 2010
USA: Sony Pictures Classics
UK: Optimum Releasing
Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, Luke Ford, Jacki Weaver, Sullivan Stapleton, James Frecheville, Dan Wyllie, Anthony Hayes, Laura Wheelwright, Mirrah Foulkes, Justin Rosniak, Susan Prior, Clayton Jacobson, Anna Lise Phillips, Tim Phillipps, Josh Helman, Michael Cody, Kieran Darcy-Smith, Jack Heanly, Andy McPhee, Christina Azucena, Jacquie Brennan, Ben Ouwehand, Bert Labonte, James Saunders, Dom Phelan, Brenda Palmer, Tom Noble, Daniel Roche, David MichA"d
Director: David MichA"d
Country: Australia
USA & UK: 112 mins
USA Rated: R for violence, drug content and pervasive language
UK Certificate: 15 contains very strong language, strong violence and hard drug use
USA Release Date: 13 August 2010 (Limited Release - New York and Los Angeles)
UK Release Date: 25 February 2011


Reviews:

Synopsis

Tensions are building in the Melbourne underworld, between dangerous criminals and equally dangerous police. Armed robber Pope Cody (Ben Mendelsohn) is on the run from a gang of renegade detectives who want him dead and has gone to ground. His business partner and best friend, Barry 'Baz' Brown (Joel Edgerton), has had enough and wants to move on. Pope's younger brother, the speed-addicted and volatile Craig Cody (Sullivan Stapleton), is making a fortune in the illicit substances trade while the youngest Cody brother, Darren (Luke Ford), naively navigates his way through this criminal world - the only world his family has ever known.

They are joined by their nephew, Joshua 'J' Cody (James Frecheville) after the death of his mother. J finds himself living with his estranged family, under the watchful eye of his doting grandmother, Smurf (Jacki Weaver), mother to the Cody boys.

J naively thinks he is a player in this world, but soon discovers, this world is far larger and more menacing than he could ever imagine, and turns the family upside down and also threatens his girlfriend, Nicky (Laura Wheelwright).

One senior cop, Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce), attempts to lure J into the police fold and then steer him through a complex minefield of witness protection, corrupt cops, slippery lawyers and a paranoid and vengeful underworld.

Ultimately J comes to realize that in order to survive he must determine how the game is played in this brutal animal kingdom and work out where he fits in.